A&A 446, 733–738 (2006) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20053757 & c ESO 2006 Astrophysics On the dynamics of the AB Doradus system J. C. Guirado1, I. Martí-Vidal1, J. M. Marcaide1,L.M.Close2,J.C.Algaba1, W. Brandner3, J.-F. Lestrade4, D. L. Jauncey5,D.L.Jones6,R.A.Preston6, and J. E. Reynolds5 1 Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad de Valencia, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA 3 Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 4 Observatoire de Paris/LERMA, Rue de l’Observatoire 61, 75014 Paris, France 5 Australian Telescope National Facility, P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia 6 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA Received 4 July 2005 / Accepted 21 September 2005 ABSTRACT We present an astrometric analysis of the binary systems AB Dor A /AB Dor C and AB Dor Ba /AB Dor Bb. These two systems of well-known late-type stars are gravitationally associated and they constitute the quadruple AB Doradus system. From the astrometric data available at different wavelengths, we report: (i) a determination of the orbit of AB Dor C, the very low mass companion to AB Dor A, which confirms the mass estimate of 0.090 M reported in previous works; (ii) a measurement of the parallax of AB Dor Ba, which unambiguously confirms the long-suspected physical association between this star and AB Dor A; and (iii) evidence of orbital motion of AB Dor Ba around AB Dor A, which places an upper bound of 0.4 M on the mass of the pair AB Dor Ba /AB Dor Bb (50% probability).